Arash T Riahi: Scottish Documentary Institute Masterclass

I recently traveled through to Edinburgh to attended the Scottish Documentary Institution's (SDI) monthly Masterclass. This month it was held by Arash T Riahi. http://www.scottishdocinstitute.com/featured/a-masterclass-with-arash-t-riahi/

Riahi is currently working on his new project Everyday Rebellion, a cross media project aimed at activists worldwide. (watch the trailer!)

The masterclass was to discuss storytelling, narrative strategies and film structure within documentary.... & discuss them he did!

After the dreaded 'What's you name and where do you come from?' (where you lay on the floor trying to pick up that pen you dropped... 5 minutes ago!) Riahi began sharing his knowledge of documentary filmmaking.

His opening gambit was that documentary is about birth and death, and he's not sure if documentary is closer to the truth than fiction.

Such a bold statement, and one i've been wrestling with throughout my dissertation. Is documentary still dedicated to the discourse of sobriety? If, as John Grierson claimed, documentary is the 'creative treatment of actuality', surely the documentary is no longer reality? It's a subjective portrayal of circumstances, albeit well researched, collected by the filmmaker and displayed at his discretion.

Riahi altered Griersons infamous quote to 'The poetic treatment of reality'. He said that within documentary you must dramatise reality and so long as you retain the controlling idea, and are aware of your own moral borders, you can convey your message using documentary techniques.

Coming from such a well-respected documentary filmmaker, this is refreshing.



I'm working on an experimental documentary based on the artist Lotte Glob. She is an inspiring woman who has such a precious lifestyle, from which I believe people can learn a lot.

My issue (well, I have many) is, I'm creating an experimental documentary on an ARTIST! How can I combine my own artistic elements within the visuals to enhance a story of someone who doesn't need enhanced?! And her art is out of this world. I fear my contributions won't be acceptable and am working on how to achieve a balance.

Riahi discussed how he incorporated artistic elements into his doc. Although not based on an artist it, it was still a great insight into the process of enhancing the story.

From an initial interview with an activist, he changed the whole of the mise en scene for the final cut. He changed the environment, background, the focus and the audio. So is it still a documentary? Yes.

Initially it was 2 activists sitting on a bench, with the city spilling out down the hill behind them. The two women were discussing activist stratagies.

While filming, Riahi noticed one of the womans hands. She was expressing the story through hand movements and he found this to be fascinating... But how to include it!?

He decided this was too important to go unnoticed and asked the girl to repeat her story using only her hands.

It was changed to the women's expressive hand gestures shaded beneath a tree, against a background of leaves with rays of sun shining through giving a soft bokeh effect against the sharp focus of the hands.

The audio was altered from her voice, to someone unrelated repeating the womans words in a whispered voice. The 'poetic' edit gave a better understanding of the situation, it made you feel a secret was being shared.

Though the message put forth was the same as the initial shot, it was enhanced and more engaging for audience. I believe that's the job of a documentary filmmaker. Most people can shoot observational documentary, but adding poetic elements is the skill and trade of the filmmaker. To excite and convey the message as accurately as possible to the audience.

So what else did he say? Well I'll give you some bullet points that I found useful:

• Film something only when you want to show something or the shot will be empty.


• Allow the story to change you.


• Telling the audience your feelings IS a problem.


• DON'T just talk about the feelings, try to find images and interesting visuals to describe these feelings.


• When telling the story, put it into a bigger context.


• What are you telling the audience and do they care?

There, that's me done. Riahi gave a thoroughly interesting presentation (3 hours and kept me hanging on his every word!) and I would suggest you have a wee peek at his work and keep your eyes peeled for the Everyday Rebellion (website to be published 1st March 2013) Looks like it'll be a good un!  

Bye!